Body

Saranac Lake, N.Y., February 12, 2009--Dr. Marcia Blackman and her research team at the Trudeau Institute have followed up on an intriguing report published in the journal Nature in May 2007 by Dr. Herbert Virgin, et al., showing that mice persistently infected with certain forms of herpesvirus, which can establish lifelong latent infections, are resistant to infection with bacterial pathogens.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the American Legacy Foundation have estimated that truth®, the nations' largest youth smoking prevention campaign, saved $1.9 billion or more in health care costs associated with tobacco use. The results were published February 12 online by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

A report publishing online on February 12th in the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, suggests a counterintuitive new method to make cancer less likely to spread: by normalizing the shape of tumors' blood vessels to improve their oxygen supply. Such a treatment strategy might also boost the efficacy and reduce resistance to available anti-cancer drugs and so-called anti-angiogenic drugs that work by cutting off the growth of new blood vessels.

Our blood vessels provide all growing tissues with oxygen and nutrients. The growth of blood vessels (a process termed angiogenesis) is indispensable for the proper functioning of organs and the repair of tissues when they have become damaged.

"Phalanx" cell

Researchers at North Carolina State University have successfully modified a common plant virus to deliver drugs only to specific cells inside the human body, without affecting surrounding tissue. These tiny "smart bombs" - each one thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair - could lead to more effective chemotherapy treatments with greatly reduced, or even eliminated, side effects.

As vaccines against a virus that infects 100 million people annually reach late-stage clinical trials this year, researchers have developed a test to better predict whether a given vaccine candidate should protect patients from the infection, or in some cases, make it more dangerous, according to an article just published in the journal Clinical and Vaccine Immunology.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Women who as children got radiation treatment for Hodgkin's disease are almost 40 times more likely than others to develop breast cancer, according to findings from five institutions, including the University of Florida.

The higher the radiation dose, the higher the risk, researchers report. These women are also likely to develop cancer in both breasts.

Scientists studying an inherited condition resulting in blindness and crumbling teeth have found a single defective gene can affect both eye function and normal tooth development.

A previously undiscovered and unexpected link between the formation of teeth and eyes has been uncovered by researchers from the University of Leeds, through studies in two families living in a village in the war-torn Gaza strip.

New Rochelle, NY, February 12, 2009 –Data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) suggest the discovery of ancient springs in the Vernal Crater, sites where life forms may have evolved on Mars, according to a report in Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Several key papers in the issue are available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ast

When treating hospitalized children with acute osteomyelitis--a bacterial bone infection--an early changeover from intravenous (IV) antibiotic delivery to oral antibiotics is just as effective as continuing the IV therapy, according to pediatric researchers.

In addition, the oral drugs are more convenient for children and families, and avoid a major drawback of IV use: increased risk of complications from using central catheters, such as infections or breaks in the catheter.

The use of uranium as a nuclear fuel and in weapons increases the risk that people may come into contact with it, and the storage of radioactive uranium waste poses an additional environmental risk. However, radioactivity is not the only problem related to contact with uranium; the toxicity of this metal is generally more dangerous to human health. Researchers are still looking for simple, effective methods for the sensitive detection and effective treatment of uranium poisoning.

Researchers from the University of Granada, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Aveiro (Portugal) have studied for the first time nacre's growing mechanism of gastropods, a previous step for the artificial reproduction of this material in laboratories which could make possible its use in biomedicine, with applications such as the regeneration of human bones.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Caregivers of children with special health care needs often do not get the respite care they need, according to the findings of a recent study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Researchers found that families with private insurance have more unmet respite care needs than those with public coverage. They also found that families or caregivers who need respite care the most – those caring for children with the most severe functional limitations and unstable conditions – often do not get it.

Researchers from Nano-Science Center, University of Copenhagen and National Centre for Scientific Research, France have developed a general method to study membrane proteins. This method can be used to screen several thousand proteins, and it will reduce the way from development to useful drugs substantially. Already now the pharmaceutical industry is interested and participate in a European consortium that is under construction. The research results are published in the prestigious scientific journal, PNAS.

Future medical research will focus increasingly on electronic data, with less need both for laboratory animals and tissue samples. This long term trend emerged at a recent conference on biobanking organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF), which dealt with the challenges posed by the growing scale and complexity of research in the life sciences.